Whoohoo!!! It's BACK!

[bills2002]

Anyone wanna buy a mostly linux but totally locked down 10" ereader for $100 used.
Or the same thing new for $399.

No?

Or would you like to buy a system where:
- the code is free if you wanna see if you can get black and white 30fps no flicker animation?
- you want to syncthing it with your life
- you want to rsync it with your life
- you want to load all of your information ... pdf's ebooks... over wifi or usb or (pray they add a sd card) ...
- you want to run your email client
- your browser
- your calendar
- your any one of 65k debian packages applications
- you want to solder a SD card port on it (if it doesnt come with one, I will pay $50 for the first person who does...my old remarkable had that hack)
- you want to crack the screen and be able to buy a new screen and make it work (again praying we can open/repair it)
- you want to VNC viewer to become a screen extension of your desktop?
- you want to add a bt keyboard and a bt mouse with a roller and probably (distro is X11) alt scroll wheel to zoom in and out and use this is a yes, I can sit on the beach and earn a living while getting a tan.
- (you see where this is going?)
- basically...you want to do anything with this...you can.
(try that with a competitive product)

So, OP 9+ is worth $150?  kb elip is worth $150...what trash and I going to sell to get that extra $100.

You guys rock.  I'm challenging myself to become the first order once it hits the store.

Bill

---

Ok, so I downloaded PINENOTE_MAIN-V1R2 - Schematic-20210824.pdf. It looks like it has:
- SD card slot?? lots of mentions about SD switches and stuff. Really hoping that's there and that the speed is decent.
- USB 3.0 could be faster but isnt a slouch.
- and I saw on that schmatic...JTAG ports!!!!...I pray they are document which may prevent me from bricking another device when I flash it wrong! Such a valuable feature if it's there. A $25 JTAG "resurrection spell"!

[Dahrun]

I am not as proficient with the coding aspects of Linux just yet. But I would very much like to have an out of the box working and supported ereader that I can load just about anything to. I am really pulling for this project.

[vajak]

www.howtogeek.com/pine64-pinenote-linux-tablet-returns

[Dahrun]

Pine64's Linux-Powered E-Ink Tablet is Making a Return - OMG! Ubuntu (omgubuntu.co.uk)

Some excitement!

[bills2002]

Bout like when Starlink left beta...timer every 30 minutes to check the page to see if you could sign up.

"PineNote Community Edition [PREORDER COMING SOON]"

I think a lot of us are in a holding pattern for a full linux e-ink.

Xournal++ (xournalpp)
rsync
Perhaps some form of andbox for libby to check out library books?
...
yes, once it's available, we can.

[bills2002]

Order placed!!!!
Where'd I leave that bottle of patience...I need some.


Now how to make this PineNote Plus...fingers crossed for PineNote 2.

Dreams of future:
- SD card slot
- HDMI output
- Faster wifi
- Faster USB
- User changeable battery
- tablet cover with keyboard, and HMDI LCD on back...sun or shade!  Plus an extra battery.

Sugar plums and root + rsync.  It's almost Christmas time.
(my Elipsa sits idle as the pen died...who has AAAA batteries? Oh...and it doesnt root, doesnt run linux, doesnt rsync (not built in)...cant load whatever debian packages I want...I dont want a browser, I want a choice of 5+ browsers.  I want a RSS reader...that I choose.  I want a PDF reader I choose.  I want a desktop environment I choose.  I want the email calendaring app I chose.  Get the idea?  Choice.  With the PineNote, I get choice.  Don't like any of the choices?  Write it yourself.  )

Good luck sorting the shipping / delivery out.  I will practice patience. 
Thank you Pine64 for producing these products.

(next I want?  Full Android Smartwatch that can be unlocked/flashed/relocked.  (Existing Chinese FAW's are a closed eco system).)

[Kevin Kofler]

Why Android? The Asteroid OS UI on postmarketOS is the smartwatch equivalent of the GNU/Linux ecosystem you get on the PineNote. https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/AsteroidOS (Stock AsteroidOS is libhybris-based, postmarketOS ports it to mainline or close-to-mainline Linux.)

Too bad that the PineTime has nowhere near enough RAM to run a Linux kernel and thus cannot run any of this. So they are targeting old WearOS smartwatches. And last I checked, the postmarketOS and AsteroidOS teams were not recommending the Asteroid OS UI on postmarketOS on any watch model yet, it is still experimental. There is of course the Halium/libhybris-based AsteroidOS that already works on some models if you want to try out something right now. But it uses Android kernels with proprietary driver blobs.

Something I would love to see would be a PineTime 2 or PineTime Pro with sufficient specs to run postmarketOS (with the AsteroidOS UI). Someone on Reddit listed a bunch of SoCs that could be useful: https://www.reddit.com/r/PINE64official/...t/kzfkstk/ – e.g., the i.MX 8ULP is cheap, 64-bit ARM, and supports external RAM. (It has 896 KB onboard, which is of course insufficient, though still more than the PineTime's nRF52832 with its 64 KB. But unlike the nRF52832, the i.MX 8ULP accepts LPDDR3/LPDDR4/LPDDR4X RAM. The smartwatch will need a reasonable amount of that, something like the 3 GB on the PinePhone.)

[bills2002]

Very good points.
I used AstroidOS on my old Samsung Galaxy G Round years ago. 
Unfortunately, I like, am addicted?, to the broad app selection that F-droid brings me.
Also, I have to use some closed corporate solutions for health.  Being able to "cheat" and use the Play store to get those is nice. 
It is great to be diverse...fundamental to human development over time...but sometimes diversity leads us to a million solutions to the simple hammer.  Not all of the solutions get polished enough to be a hammer.  Some are a stick, some a rock, some a metal bar.  Someone looked at what a house builder needed and the hammer evolved.

I agree...I loved my Pebble Steel but when I got the Samsung there was no turning back.

The chinese ones target "look I'm Dick Tracy and have a video phone on my wrist".  They are looking for a price point to sell at.  Look at all the non-full android watches on amazon/alibaba/...  $0.99 yes less than a dollar to get a watch with a screen and built in "apps".

My dream would be cases, motherboards, input devices, screen...all in a watch size.
Drop it and bash it on a rock?  Case still fine?  Just get a new screen.  Oh water got in, get a new motherboard.  You want thin and can trade of some battery life?  Replace the battery with a smaller one, drop the 4g adapter platethingy, your good to go.  Female?  Following that pattern of styles?  Get the female watch case, get the screen that looks good...e-ink/oled/transflective ips...and make your watch your way.  Me I want a 1.39" round, transflective IPS (outdoor full sun looks nice), no cellular, in a rugged rolex like looking divers case, filled with mineral oil, diveable to 50m for hours, with a vibrator that is silent but you can feel.  I want repairable...and I want my OS.

I bought the PineNote for the Debian Trixie and my ability to run a ton of already written apps.

I do wish the best for the people that are building up ecosystems (PineTime, AstroidOS, postmarkOS which I bought and used on my Remarkable)...it's just sometimes for some things Im looking for more. 

So excited as my PineNote is supposed to be delivered today!  Born in the 60's...it blows my mind that I could order a product from EU last Thursday, that was made in CN, shipped from CN, and I will have in my hands 1 week from the date.  It is a different world from 50 years ago...75...100...
Please...nobody press the button...finding a good planet is soo hard...

Bill

---

I'm not good at chasing rabbits...have to work for a living....and this is a twisty rabbit hole.

I think it's the size/power issue. That and the fact that a $2 watch does what 99% of the people think a watch can do. Hard to sell in a market where most people would say "WHAT! You paid $499 for a watch and it's not made of gold?".

Some of these boards have been around for a long time:
https://itsfoss.com/raspberry-pi-zero-alternatives/
A few might fit in a watch case.

Not knowing much about USB 3.0/3.1/3.2/4...I wonder if it would work to carry information at extremely low power. The USB standard expects to deliver both data and power...what if you dropped power?

What if the SoC had a USB hub already built in? If it was 5 to 10gb/s? What if there was a new standard for the wiring so that tiny connectors/cables could be used and still protected from radio interferrence?

You could build your own watch with a power bus to the battery, hook in components (screen, mb, wifi, cell, health) and assemble what you wanted.
If we sell 2 billion watches...and only make $2 off of each...

I dont think there's enough money nor demand.
Still...I look forward to the day when phones and watches and car computers are just like PCs 10k's of different hardware vendors, dozens to 100s of software solutions, millions of applications.

My 2010 MacPro pays my mortgage running Debian...corporations do not like that.
Own it, control it, otherwise...you a profit line for a corporation who has no morals...they cant.

[bills2002]

WOW WOW WOW!
Great job guys. Just spent the last 4 hours playing with it!

Pro's:
- Debian Trixie built in...was having a settings dialog issue...apt update ; apt upgrade ; reboot! All fixed! SO amazing!
- Screen is beautiful compared to my other big boy readers. I am not on current gen of the "best" but it's amazing. Adjusted the backlight color...it looks like a white sheet of paper. Really nice.
- Light weight...easy to hold
- Smooth finished product feeling...not a hacked together solution but something you could pickup at a big box electronic store.
- KOreader built in
- Xournal++ built in...though I havent played with it much
- you'd think after 4 hours I'd have more, just sum it up NICE!

Bits I had to fix: (why so many? who cares...they can be fixed! see the first one)
- KOreader couldnt OPDS internet as deployed...newer debian does not chmod +s /usr/bin/ping, did that and then OPDS worked great...Project Gutenberg...when I'm done reading those 80,000 books, then I'll contemplate Amaz..
- It is Wayland. Hmm well...Im going to investigate xorg. Old school.
- Had to apt update;apt upgrade; reboot because the gnome settings dialog kept closing after opening...fine now.
- Synaptic...is this the graphical application installer? Should probably be easy to launch. Also, it does not resize it's screen.
- I dont like the gnome autohide scrollbars...too hard to find with e-ink speeds. Should be easy to turn on.
- I dont like that windows dont have borders. Sure it's sexy and all...just supper hard to resize with a pen.
- I dont like that some windows dont have maximize or minimize.
- Notice that complaint about wayland...gnome is the one who said screw the window manager...I guess I'll just swim upstream against the current...
- Sometimes (like synaptic) the on screen keyboard cannot type into an entry field
- Im tiring...Im sure I'll find more to whine about later.

Now... does x2go work in wayland...RDP from desktop will help with some stuff.

Overall?


Best damn e-ink reader I've ever had (multiple N's, A's, Ko's...none of them were this good)!

Thank you!

---

Oh, ordered last Thu, came to Seattle today...one week later.
Ordering online kept rejecting me...and then my fraud called about the same item attempted 3x times from diff company names...
I think they just failed one and tried another.
I'm sure all good.

[vlagged]

I received the PineNote from the second batch a couple of weeks ago and I also admit I am impressed!

I only have two minus points, which are kind of nitpicks:
- the usage of glue for the cover - I would have hoped I can used it with and without cover, e.g. when reading vs when transporting it..
- the fact that it needs an USB debug circuitry for accessing the tablet through minicom - I am more used to having USB networking and telnet on the Linux phones (E.g initramfs in Sailfish)

On the good side there are many more though!
- A real computer with complete access / ownership.
- Runs Linux. Wayland (you can remote with waypipe)
- Dimensions are great!
- Screen is great! and the control of blue/red light effective
- Pen & pressure sensitivity (no BT here on the 2nd batch but that's fine)
- Current consumed out of the box is on par with a Linux phone (this is not ideal, it could be better but I expected worse for running a full desktop)

There are probably more software optimizations that could be done, for the display and full screen format, but this is why this is a dev device, right ?

Great job